Apple wants to make it easier to pair its devices with smart home accessories. The tech giant has been granted a patent for “Techniques for Managing Pairing Procedures Between Computing Devices and Accessory Computing Devices.”
About the patent
Apple says the number of categories of smart home devices in a given home typically corresponds to the number of smart home apps installed on the remote computing devices associated with the smart home. For example, in a smart home that includes a single smart thermostat, 25 smart lighting devices, two smart lock devices, one smart garage device, and four smart camera devices, one or more of the remote computing devices likely will include a smart thermostat app, a smart lighting app, a smart lock app, a smart garage door app, and a smart camera app.
Apple notes that, in this regard, the proliferation of available smart home devices has resulted in heavily fragmented systems that are cumbersome for individuals to manage. For example, an individual who resides in the foregoing example smart home may be required to individually access a majority of the applications during isolated events (e.g., morning routine, bed time routine, etc.) in order to configure the smart home according to the individual’s preferences.
Apple’s patent involves an effective approach for enabling individuals to configure their smart home devices in a “seamless, intuitive, and efficient manner.”
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “A method can be implemented by a computing device that is seeking to pair with an accessory computing device, and includes the steps of (1) obtaining at least an identifier and a setup code associated with the accessory computing device, (2) determining, by scanning a first communications network that is associated with the accessory computing device, that the identifier is not being advertised on the first communications network, (3) generating a hash value based on the identifier and the setup code, (4) identifying, by scanning a second communications network, that the hash value is being advertised on the second communications network, and (5) displaying an affordance that instructs a user to perform (i) a factory reset of the accessory computing device, or (ii) a secondary pairing procedure with the accessory computing device through at least one primary computing device with which the accessory computing device is currently paired.”
